Uh, so many months since my last article on this blog, wow. And so much stuff happened in the past few months, including…NX’s formal announcement, finally. Ops, sorry, I meant the Nintendo Switch’s formal announcement. An unusual kind of announcement, especially compared to what most people expected, form-wise: not a Direct of sorts, but a 3:30 video that teases the most relevant features of the device, some games, official name and logo, and then goodbye to January 12th / 13th (depending on your timezone) for everything else. And now, it’s just slightly more than two weeks before the day: that’s when we’ll see if the great and attractive package shown this October delivers and it crushes everything and shines more than the Sun and manly tears are shed for the awesome, or if it fails and crushes and brings Nintendo to their bottom and people will cry sad tears and-what’s going on with the hyperboles?

Seriously though, it’s going to be a major step in Switch’s life, and many people (me included, I’ll be honest here) hope the event will be good in several ways. So, I thought this is a good time to write about some games I’m expecting and / or hoping to see appear on stage or just getting announced. It should be fun to look back, after the Presentation, to see how much stuff I got right (or wrong. Mostly wrong, I’m sure).

I want to make the final score and win the game for all

In case you don’t understand the paragraph title, especially in relation to a Tekken game, no need to worry: the confusion is normal. It’s just that Harada & co. decided that the Tekken Ball theme for the Wii U version of Tekken Tag Tournament 2 had to be a corny, high school-themed song. The worst part is that it’s catchy. Check the video below to hear with your own ears

After having cleared the insanity…why do I believe we’ll see Tekken 7? Well, first of all, going by what Serkan Toto said several months ago, Namco is working on several Switch games, Smash Bros. included. It’s true that he said, back then, that SSB was planned to be a launch title, which shouldn’t be the case going by more recent rumours from reliable sources (Laura Kate Dale said it’s coming a bit after launch), but I can’t dismiss his tweets so easily: he’s an analyst and consultant for several major mobile publishers (so, “traditional” ones too), thus he has several solid contacts.

So, since we’re dealing with multiple titles for the platform, even assuming some of them are Nintendo-published (I mean, alongside Smash Bros., we shouldn’t be surprised to see an expanded version of Pokken Tournament, including the Arcade-only characters, announced sooner or later, come on), we can make hypotesis on what other Namco-published titles could be coming.

Still, there are other reasons why I believe Tekken 7 could be bound to the platform. First of all, the already-mentioned Pokken Tournament: a Pokèmon / Tekken mash-up, with the Tekken director, Katsuhiro Harada, working on it, that represents, alongside Smash Bros. itself, a possibly stronger relationship between Nintendo and Namco for the fighting game genre. Also, speaking of Harada himself, he was recently asked about PS4 Pro / Scorpio enhancements and a Switch version of the game, and he gave a…strange answer on the latter

Have you considered incorporating PlayStation 4 Pro or Xbox Scorpio support for the game?

Those platforms are relatively new as far as what we know about them and what’s been released publicly about them. It’s hard to comment on that right now.

So, no Nintendo Switch version to reveal?

We’re quite surprised by the Nintendo Switch announcement; read into that what you like.

This is, indeed, a very strange answer: no confirmation, no denial, just that they were “surprised”. What does that even mean: surprised because they weren’t expecting the announcement back in October? Surprised by the format used by Nintendo for the unveiling? Surprised by the reception? What a vague statement. It’s so vague it could be assumed it’s a PR-ish statement, in order to avoid to spill anything on the matter, whether it’s happening or it isn’t.

Finally, the game’s supposedly coming out in Early 2017, so between January and March, but we still have no release date yet. However, at the most recent tournament, it was announced that the release date was going to be announced…

1) Kuma & Panda announced for T72) Special NJPW RAINMAKER X KING Promotion3) Release date will be announced during an event next month

Eh, I wonder if the “event” is a Tekken-specific one or a generic one. If it’s the latter, I suppose the chances ot its appearance on the Switch Presentation’s stage are high.

Super Smash Musou

Ok, gentlemen, say hello to Musou Stars: it’s a cross-over title announced by Koei-Tecmo at TGS 2016 for (currently) PS4 and PSV, releasing on March 2nd in Japan. At first, it was going to be an Orochi Warrior game, but then the developers at the Musou Fact-err, I mean Omega Force decided to change direction: a smaller roster, but with bigger representation of Koei Tecmo’s franchises. So, not just Musou characters with a few non-Musou ones. Heck, Opoona is a playable character here.

Now, the title of this paragraph isn’t completely in jest, because I believe this kind of Musou can have a similar function to what a Smash Bros. game can do. Alongside, you know, being a fantastic game (I’m ignoring Brawl right now, and I’m proud to do so). You see, a Smash Bros. game represents a promotional platform for Nintendo (and not just Nintendo, at this point) as a whole: it’s a title that sells huge amount of copies thanks to major franchises being represented, but that can translate into brand new players getting to know less known characters, which could become a bigger interest in trying the games / franchises those characters come from. It worked for Marth and Roy back with Melee, characters with such huge following that Nintendo went on starting releasing Fire Emblem games internationally; Pit’s appearance in Brawl was a step towards Kid Icarus: Uprising, and we’ve seen more recently how Nintendo tied a budget re-release of Bayonetta 2 in US to the character’s release in Smash Bros. And this kind of Musou, thanks to the different brands represented, can work similarly in making first-time players more aware of other franchises. This…fits well with a launch of a new device: trying to expand the fanbase of different properties with one single game on a just launched console, where the competition is much less fierce for obvious reasons. That’s the first major reason why I think Musou Stars could show up at the Switch’s Presentation; even if it releases slightly later on Switch compared to PS4/Vita, I don’t believe it would represent such a huge problem (it would be a matter of 2-3 weeks at worst).

Also, let’s be honest: it’s a cross-over title at its core, which means guest stars are possible…and Hyrule Warriors has represented a very successful venture for both Nintendo and Koei Tecmo…so, yeah, the Switch version could see Link and Zelda (most obvious guesses) included as playable characters: more appeal for the game to the Nintendo audience in the end.

Grr, I hate a character because she’s showing feelings for someone. And it’s from the same sex, how dare they! Mgrmgrmgr, I hate it so much, argh!

Look at how lovely that kiss looks! Argh, I can’t stand it. I need to kick some dolphins in their vaginas! Blizzard just shot themselves in the foot, I’m an expert, graurgh!

…Ok, it’s better to stop here with the mocking at some of the strangest reaction to the latest webcomic’s scene where Tracer kisses her girlfriend.

Yep, Overwatch. Sincerly, this is a game that I fear has the lowest chances of being shown at the event, among the ones I’ve already mentioned and the ones I’ve yet to talk about: while I still can’t believe we live in the same dimension where Bethesda has Skyrim on a Nintendo platform and it’s very excited for the platform, going by Todd Howard’s words, I can’t shake the sense of pessimism towards Western support completely off my shoulders. My expectations have increased a bit on that sense, but I still see developers not going all in, others not going at all, some major (already released on other consoles) titles not releasing due to “different audience”, “not enough demand”, “we had Frog Factions 2 as a test game, no one bought it so sorry”, you name it. Also, this is a game that’s approaching its first year anniversary, so it would be a very late port, which makes the case for it even more difficult.

However, I feel Overwatch could have some (slim) chances of appearing on Switch due to two reasons. First of all, while it’s an old title, it’s a service game. No, not SEGA, but a title that keeps on evolving after launch, with brand new content, new modes, costant balance updates, etc. While “old”, it’s still very alive, so expanding to another platform can be a good decision, providing that expansion brings a sufficient amount of new players. But that can happen if the new device is receptive towards the game / the genre.

And here lies the second reason, Splatoon. Nintendo’s own team-based shooter can be taken as an example to show how the shooter genre can be successful (highly, even) on a Nintendo platform too, despite past few years’s flops in the genre by other developers (because yes, Call of Duty on Wii U didn’t exactly do that well. And by that I mean that the numbers were extremely low); I can see Splatoon’s and Overwatch’s audiences overlapping also due to the amount of fan arts surrounding both franchises (there’s a LOT of that, and several of them look great, if not fantastic. Both games really inspire people’s artistic skills, which is great!).

I’d personally love to play Overwatch on a device that allows me to do so both on the big TV screen and on the bed / everywhere inside and outside the house, so this entry in the article is more based on “hope” than just rational thinking, but I still think there are . And I admit that seeing Blizzard appearing on a Nintendo platform after Bethesda would sustain even more my theory that we’re actually living in an alternative dimension, too. Man, Skyrim in the Switch’s reveal trailer was a real “WTF” moment for me, seriously.

Come on Reggie, give us Mother 3!

Rumours from Emily Rogers and Eurogamer (among the most reliable sources for Switch’s pre-announcement rumours in the past few months) were absolutely sure that Mother 3 would’ve finally seen its Western debut through the Virtual Console service on Wii U, after its release in Japan on December 17th, 2015. Unfortunately, though, while an extremely good amount of other rumours coming from both sources have been confirmed as time went by, this is one of those that hasn’t materialised. And it hurts, especially considering how the Mother/Earthbound series has finally started to get more consideration from Nintendo themselves, thanks to pretty successful Virtual Console releases (and to think it all started on Miiverse). This makes me honestly think that a release this year was actually planned, but got scratched due to Wii U’s state (or maybe Nintendo’s attempt to end its life in an even stronger fashion, or both), in the end, a classic change of plans.

We all know the Presentation will deal with several aspects of the device, including the Virtual Console service and, about that, Eurogamer recently posted an article stating GC is coming to the digital platform, plus the return of upgrade fees for games already owned on Wii/Wii U (in case you’ve yet to read it, you can find it here: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-12-07-sources-nintendo-switch-will-have-gamecube-virtual-console-support ). Of course, since the Switch will become the de facto Nintendo platform / family of platforms going forward, we can expect GBA VC to come back, and (maybe it’s just me, though) presenting Switch Virtual Console with Mother 3’s worldwide release, alongside other titles, would be a great way to present the service and to give more confidence in it.

Double cross at home and on the go

That logo is so ridiculously heavy to look at, seriously.

If you follow my posts on GAF (but honestly, why should you do that), I’ve been among the most vocal about guessing that MHXX will show up on Switch’s launch, for several reasons

The game is coming out on March 18th, Capcom couldn’t release it at the end of this year

Laura Kate Dale has previously posted how she heard the European release date of Switch will be on March 17th

Now, if we assume the console’s release happens on the same week worldwide (as she said), considering the usual history of major console / game launches in Japan, that would translate into March 18th as the Japanese Switch launch date. So, the exact same day as MHXX

Having a game like MHXX at launch, even if it’s not exclusive to the platform, would be a great incentive for a specific kind of consumers (more core ones) to buy the Switch at launch in Japan. Especially if (as rumoured) titles like the next Mario game and Splatoon will accompany it.

Unfortunately, more recently, Laura herself has stated in an AMA on Reddit how she’s heard to not expect MH at the January’s event, but she also said that both the sources for this tidbit were Western ones, as you can see here

Which could mean that she didn’t hear about the game being at the January event because it won’t be at the Western events that will happen alongside the main ones, and the game will be announced for the West at a later occasion.

So, I’m still expecting the game to appear. Heck, it’s among the games I see having the biggest chances to be at the event. I would see its absence from the launch as a major mistake from Nintendo and/or Capcom, to be honest, but it’s possible the launch lineup for Japan is still great even without it thanks to other titles, of course.

So, there you have it. As said earlier, it will be fun to read this piece again after the Presentation is over…I’m so expecting to have a bad record over here, but I hope the event will surprise me, in several ways. Hopefully, positive ones at most.

See you soon, world

P.S. #westandforfemalesingamingindustry

]]>https://theflyingthoughts.com/2016/12/29/guessing-time-ft-nintendo-switch-presentation-2017/feed/0h2x1_nintendoswitch_presentation2017_engbmpl90https://theflyingthoughts.com/2016/12/29/guessing-time-ft-nintendo-switch-presentation-2017/E3 2016 ft. The Best and the Worst | Part 2http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/theflyingthoughts/~3/m-NxsROrhAc/
https://theflyingthoughts.com/2016/07/18/e3-2016-ft-the-best-and-the-worst-part-2/#respondSun, 17 Jul 2016 22:59:14 +0000http://theflyingthoughts.com/?p=1613]]>Aaaaand here we go. Several weeks ago, I talked about what I thought were the Best things coming out of this year’s E3, while promising a follow-up article on the opposite side of the spectrum, and (while very, veeeeeeery late, especially compared to my initial plans) this is it. In case you missed the former article, you can find about it here

In any case, I remind this is not a ranking, but just a list featuring the stuff that surprised me the most (negatively, in this particular case); it’ll be clear how some items of this list would place in an imaginary ranking between each other, though.

This introduction sounds good enough to me; time start to dive into the second part of this feature (so ironic to say “time to” for such a long-delayed article, and after so much time passed since E3 ended, but they say auto-irony is a quality, after all…right?).

The Worst

Scalebound

I’m sorry, Hideki. I’m really, really sorry. You’re a great guy, and Platinum has released some fantastic, over-the-top/exploding-with-awesomeness games in the recent years, but no. Before you ask: no, I don’t eat shit…and this is why I’m not that sold on this game.

Sorry, I couldn’t resist the temptation. Ahem, seriously now… I started having doubts back at Gamescom 2015, when the gameplay itself was shown: the idea of controlling a dragon’s action sounds cool (freaking cool, honestly), and it can bring some interesting real-time tactical implications for the battle themselves. Send the dragon there, while you fight here, for example. The setpiece looked really nice, and, in case you were asking, I’m not so opposed to the idea of a non-Bayonetta/W101/Rising style action by Platinum. Especially since it’s more of a real-time RPG, not turn-based; there were several instruments to use for battles, and they showed were cool moves you can pull off, despite the game NOT being a character action title. However, as just mentioned, the execution didn’t exactly make me as intrigued by the premise. It just didn’t feel as fluent as I hoped. It was surely one of the first parts of the game, but it showed some clunkiness and it didn’t look that exciting. The possibilites to use the dragon and different weapons were there, but their implementation didn’t inspire me as I thought. Also, the sword combat scenes didn’t feel fluent, the animations weren’t always fluid, and the music that starts once the main character puts those headphones on…don’t like it that much. However, when watching this year’s E3 Conference, I was ready to see more of Scalebound. Several months had passed since that demonstration, I was geniunely curious. Aaaaaand it was a bit of a letdown. I didn’t see anything that could convince me my fears were a thing of the past (except for the frame rate, that improved a lot), and the fight just felt…boring. A gigantic boss battle in a Platinum title feeling boring is strange. It’s impossible, like a cat hugging a dog, or seeing goats raining from the sky, or a decent show from EA at E3; you get the idea. Yes, this is not a character action game, but it was still boring, the hits didn’t feel they were actually being felt by the gigantic boss in the way you’d expect. The battle even seemed confusing to follow at one point. The confusion was probably increased by the fact the live demo included a multiplayer demonstration, and it still felt not that exciting. My initial doubts were not dissolved, and I still remain with mixed feelings about it.

That beautiful mess @ EA Play

It was inevitable. EA conferences have always had some great stuff…to laugh at, I mean, even in spite of interesting announcements. And no, I won’t use the Peggle 2 guy’s gif since it’s been so overu-who am I kidding.

Aaaah, that awkwardness in trying to pull off something like that in a cool way.

EA seems to be the master of cringe-worthy press conferences, and this is no exception. I mean, just watch the Career Mode for the next FIFA, with the guy we play in the game introducing it in such an emphatic way it’s difficult to not laugh at it (he tried hard to sell it as well as possible, I can’t deny it…but it’s so funny!). Or, right before that, what said about the new FIFA. Terms they’ve always used about (more or less) about the upcoming iteration of the franchise, quite devoid of significant meaning. Also, all those promised 2018 titles…behind the scenes! Behind the scenes here, look at how we’re working hard there, cool montage and effects, almost zero gameplay. And this is not new for EA, it already happened with Mass Effect Andromeda… which looked pretty good here, despite not a huge amount of footage shown. Also, Josè Mourinho’s presence on the London stage. Or better, his physical presence there, with just one-two words spoken, then it sits there until Peter Moore tells him “You can go now, you did good Josè”. Some cool stuff in the conference, but not that much to talk about, honestly. And, again, not the first time it happens for an EA press event. But the best of the worst (actually, this could be an ad-honorem Best of the show) was the post-conference massive Battlefield 1 event. So many people playing, between major pro Battlefield gamers and vips, like…Zac Efron? Jamie Foxx? Emily Ratajkowski?!? Snoop Dog? So strange to see those people there. And what was the best thing to come out of that, if not…Snoop Dog playing while clearly smoking a joint (also, not contributing at all for the team, 0 everything). That was AMAZING. GiantBomb’s crew went wild for that, and for a good reason. Snoop, why didn’t you give something to the guy who presented Fe on stage? He could’ve relaxed a bit!

The Project Scorpio’s announcement

The weeks and days before E3 were filled with brand new, reliable rumours about a new console from Microsoft, much more powerful than the current Xbox One, peaking at 6 terafops (so, higher than the rumoured-but-basically-confirmed PS4 Neo specs as of the latest update), so it doesn’t come off as a surprise this announcement. But, since the appearance of these rumours, considering how some of them outlined its official unveiling right at this year’s E3, I’ve always wondered…why should they announce it this soon. And this thought became even stronger by watching the conference, since they opened it with a hardware announcement (Xbox One S) and they closed it with another hardware announcement (Project Scorpio, indeed). I mean…why. What’s the point in announcing two brand new hardware revisions for your console in the same event, with one of them being the posterchild of the “world without generations”, of a brand new way of thinking the console environment, while the other is the classic lighter and slimmer looking revision (with 4K for movies/tv, internal PSU, etc.). Especially when the former is so far away, due to the Fall 2017’s release date. I don’t exacly buy Phil Spencer’s reasoning of “letting developers knowing about it and making it so they can use its full potential now”, since that’s a thing they can perfectly do behind the scenes, behind the strong (?) wall of NDAs and such, especially if you’re a major Western publisher. Also, announcing such a stronger, hyped-up version of your console makes the upcoming S a bit less exciting in the customers’ eyes, even in spite of a quite thrilling entering price (it’s also true the only SKU available at launch is the 2TB, at $399.99, which counters the “thrilling entering price” point, but anyway). Not that it will do awful (in US and UK, at least), but it could’ve had better chances to be a good success without the ghost of Scorpio looming behind it already. Moreover, Microsoft announced Scorpio without that much “substance”: several promises and technical datas, but no physical image of the console. They clearly tried to sell more the concept than the console itself, and, I have to admit, they didn’t do a bad job at that. But again, why don’t just wait for the console to be ready to be shown, or parts of it (hello, PS4’s first event!), to do the announcement? We live, after all, in the social-media age: news spread out far sooner than in the past, their reach is massive compared to even just 10 years ago, so it’s not necessary anymore to have brand new devices announced one year / more than one year before their actual release. Both PS4 and Xbox One’s original announcements showed that announcement-to-release times lower than one year for brand new consoles are, indeed, possible (One had other problems that influenced its public image tremendously, just to clarify). I suppose the real reason for the announcement now was to try to steal PS4 Neo’s thunder before its official unveiling event, after all. Honestly, I don’t know if this kind of news will be that successful on such front, especially considering how Scorpio will be back in the spotlight in 2017, while Neo will be out sooner (maybe even this year?).

Mario Party: Cover Rushed

Once, we had publishers that did not remove publications’ logos from covers, not even trying to hide they were taken from a mere image search and slapped on printed copies, ready to be sent on shelves (hi Capcom!), then we had mispelled titles on the spine of retail boxes (hi again, Capcom!), and now we have art being recycled for the sake of getting the job done as quickly as possible.

…Hi Nintendo! Look at the image on the right: it’s not the first time I see that artwork, honestly, but here it’s so blatant and clear how they just put a circle-shaped frame with stars, recoloured the Toad and said “Bam, there we have it, job done! We are masters and artists, ladies and gentlemen!”. There isn’t even a background behind the recycled artwork. It’s so blatant you can’t avoid to laugh at it. What’s even more ironic is that the game, by watching the Treehouse live streaming looks not bad, kind of refreshing compared to most recent Mario Party games.

No female main in Breath of the Wild, and here’s why!

I’ll make this clear right from the get-go: this is here NOT because female Link / female main character is not in Breath of the Wild. While I would’ve loved to see it, I’m not angry or anything that it’s missing per se. There are cases where the original creators have a specific idea about how the story plays, who are the actors for the story, which gender fits the best, and if there are good reason for a character to be male or female, or black / white / blue / everything, no problem. A reasonable motivation is not the cause of debates. Aaand this is where Anouma’s words back at E3 fell short. This is how he explained the decision

During the conversation, which was translated by a Nintendo representative, we asked Aonuma if the rumors of having the option to play as a female version of Link are accurate. He said that he’s aware of the conversations happening online, stating: “So yes, there were rumors like that, and we did discuss as a staff as to what would be possible if we took that route.”

However, instead of entertaining the idea of the player being able to choose the hero Link’s gender, Aonuma said his team considered what they deemed to be the simplest option; making princess Zelda the lead character. “We thought about it,” said Aonuma, “and decided that if we’re going to have a female protagonist it’s simpler to have Princess Zelda as the main character.”

This idea was ultimately rejected, because according to Aonuma “…if we have princess Zelda as the main character who fights, then what is Link going to do? Taking into account that, and also the idea of the balance of the Triforce, we thought it best to come back to this [original] makeup.”

Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma credits fan speculation for the creation of a female Link in the recent Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Warriors 3DS game, but he clarified to Kotaku here at E3 that the Link in the new Wii U Zelda who first showed up in a 2014 trailer was always planned to be a guy.

Aonuma said he had been vague about the specifics of the new game’s Link when he was giving interviews about that trailer in 2014. He thinks that helped lead some Zelda fans to think that the somewhat androgynous Link shown in the trailer might be a girl. Aonuma said his lack of specifics on the character two years ago hadn’t been intended to stoke fan theories. “My intention was to say this isn’t done and there may be changes coming to that. I in no way had intention of leading people into believing Link was female.”

But why not have a female Link in this big new game? “You know there’s the idea of the Triforce in the Zelda games we make,” he told Kotaku. “The Triforce is made up of Princess Zelda, Ganon and Link. Princess Zelda is obviously female. If we made Link a female we thought that would mess with the balance of the Triforce. That’s why we decided not to do it.”

Now, the first remark could sound reasonable, i.e.Princess Zelda fighting would have consequences in Link’s role in the story, it would become worthless…but that would mean that Zelda cand just be, more or less, a damsel-in-distress, which sounds “archaic” compared to today’s brand new world, and that Link couldn’t – you know – assist Zelda in battle. Or the opposite as well, like happened in Spirit Tracks. Seriously, why can’t Zelda be the main character in a Zelda game, after all.

I meant a good / great one!

Also, and I’m probably going to look stupid to my audience (yes, I saw all of you. You three are great, never change!), but I don’t get the “Triforce balance” reasoning. Yeah, ok, male + female + monster. But, I don’t know, I don’t think it’s said anywhere that the Hero’s legend can ONLY be transmitted from a male to another male (correct me if I’m wrong), and I don’t see female + female + monster being such a tragic disurbance of the balance.

Also, we just had a female Link-like character, it’s in the opening image to this paragraph! Actually, Linkle is not a perfect female Link, it has some character traits which are opposite to Link’s ones, and that’s even better!

After all, it’s true that, as time went by, Link has started growing more as a character (more personality in his reactions), but (personal opinion) he’s still strictly connected to its avatar origins, the representation of the player. So, technically, I believe Link can be female. If Anouma and his team believe otherwise, no problems, but the reasons they outlined didn’t convince me that much, if not at all.

Bonus: what happened to Will Powers

This is something that, indeed, happened around E3 time, strictly related to E3 since it happened at a party for the fair, and it’s something, let’s face it, more serious than the stuff listed earlier, so I decided to put it as a bonus to the end of this article.

So, this is what happened to Will Powers, Deep Silver’s PR guy, at this specific E3 party. All the tweets describing the events are here:

Basically, he was drugged by drinking something destined to the girl he was with, and other people could’ve been drugged as well. I don’t think this deserves long comments, one word is enough: disgusting. Disgusting, disgusting, disgusting. Not the first time it happens in the world for sure, and not a problem just of the gaming industry for sure, but…yep, disgusting, and it’s another episode of women not being safe in the gaming industry. The news is old, so this article will not give to Will Powers’ story way too much renewed relevance, but I thought I had to talk about it anyway.

So, yeah, I suppose this is enough. This two-parts feature is done, after all. This was an interesting E3 for several reasons: the marketing gigantic monster gave us several stuff to talk about cheerfully, and also other stuff to be disappointed about or to, simply, reflect on. No NX, no Neo, but the games were there, the passion was present too after all (once again, the Treehouse gang did a great job…you can’t even understand how much I hope we’ll get a Treehouse Live @ NX Unveiling event, seriously). We’ll meet again next year, E3.

See you soon, world

P.S. #westandforfemalesingamingindustry

]]>https://theflyingthoughts.com/2016/07/18/e3-2016-ft-the-best-and-the-worst-part-2/feed/0e3-2016mpl90https://theflyingthoughts.com/2016/07/18/e3-2016-ft-the-best-and-the-worst-part-2/New rewards for MyNintendo worldwidehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/theflyingthoughts/~3/b2Eofy7jktg/
https://theflyingthoughts.com/2016/07/01/new-rewards-for-mynintendo-worldwide/#respondFri, 01 Jul 2016 09:23:36 +0000http://theflyingthoughts.com/?p=1513]]>It’s update time again for Nintendo’s recently-established loyalty service, MyNintendo. As a matter of fact, several rewards are expiring today, July 1st (some at 08:00 AM GMT, others at 09:00 AM GMT), which means new rewards are starting to appear everywhere. If you have Golden and Platinum coins ready to be excahnged for goods and services (woo-hoo!), time to see what’s new, then.

But first, as the last time, here’s the list of the deals that ended or are about to end, courtesy of Perfectly Nintendo

Pilotwings, Pilotwings everywhere, it seems. Both major discounts and actual gift. And Tropical Freeze (the world needs more love for Tropical Freeze, come on) plus Puzzle & Dragons. Now, remember that European rewards get much more frequent rotations due to several expire dates, which is the opposite of NA. And, indeed, NA got a pretty big rewards update.

Notice: Japanese rewards have yet to be published anywhere; this article will get updated once there will be infos on the matter

And since this is a new My Nintendo update, time to analyse the value behind each deal again, so you can make informed choices about how to use your coins. Like the last time, the scheme created by the GAFfer Griss will be used to represent the economy behind the rewards

Prizes (NA)———-Coins———–Value——-Coins needed for $1 value

15% off Wii Party U 600 platinum $6.00 100

15% off SM3DWorld 300 platinum $3.00 100

15% off MP:IT 300 platinum $3.00 100

15% off Yoshi’s NI 300 platinum $3.00 100

15% off NES Remix 150 platinum $1.50 100

30% off Mario Kart 8 140 gold $18.00 7.8

30% off FE: Awakening 100 gold $12.00 8.3

30% off KI Uprising 80 gold $10.50 7.6

30% off OoT 3D 50 gold $6.00 8.3

30% off EB 20 gold $2.10 9.5

Metroid 2 30 gold $3.99 7.5

Wario Land 3 40 gold $4.99 8

Super Mario Bros 3 40 gold $4.99 8

Donkey Kong 3 40 gold $4.99 8

Super Mario Kart 60 gold $7.99 7.5

Mario Kart DLC 1 60 gold $7.99 7.5

Prizes (EU)———-Coins———–Value——-Coins needed for €1 value

20% off P&D 600 platinum $6.00 100

50% off Pilotwings 25 gold $4.00 6.25

40% off DKC:TF 40 gold $10.00 4

Pilotwings 65 gold $7.99 8.135

Going by the recap of the value behind each deal, it seems the European exclusive DKC:TF 40% discount is, by far, the best reward among those requiring Golden coins by far, with the US-exclusive Earthbound Beginnings. The rest seems to fall in line, more or less, with the more classic ratio between coins and dollars.

So, there you have it: what’s new and the value behind each deal. So, the real question is…anything of your interest added to the rewards sections of your country’s MyNintendo website?

See you soon, world

P.S. #westandforfemalesingamingindustry

]]>https://theflyingthoughts.com/2016/07/01/new-rewards-for-mynintendo-worldwide/feed/0my-nintendo-logompl90https://theflyingthoughts.com/2016/07/01/new-rewards-for-mynintendo-worldwide/E3 2016 ft. The Best and the Worst | Part 1http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/theflyingthoughts/~3/kOR4SoYSai0/
https://theflyingthoughts.com/2016/06/23/e3-2016-ft-the-best-and-the-worst-part-1/#commentsWed, 22 Jun 2016 22:39:03 +0000http://theflyingthoughts.com/?p=1403]]>And another E3 came and went, quickly but still eventful enough. It’s true, Nintendo did not show NX and had just one single game available to play on the floor, while EA made its own event, slightly outside E3, and several companies didn’t even have booths this year (including major players like Activision), but there’s still quite a lot of things to talk about, between game announcements, the conferences themselves, the cringe moments, the meltdowns…aah, that time of the year after all.

So, as a way to try to sum up what this E3 left to me, I’ve decided to make a list of the best at the show and one for the worst. These lists will include both games and extra-gaming stuff, like funny and awkward moments, specific elements of announcements. No, those won’t be rankings (even if it’ll be clear how some picking would’ve been higher than other in an hypotetical chart), but just collections of the things that surprised me the most, in both ways, as a mere viewer of a show that, when you really think about it, is a huge marketing monstrosity made of cringeness and (both intentionally and unintentionally) funny moments, with episodes of humanity here and there. Not the right time for this, though; let’s just enjoy (or despise) the best and the worst from this year’s E3, starting with the former in this piece.

The Best

The format used by Sony for its E3 Conference

An orchestra playing while trailers roll, including an over-4-minutes intro? Trailer after trailer? Visually interesting introductions (see Kojima’s entrance and Layden’s Crash-related intro)? An intense pace with few and decently timed pauses? That’s the kind of conference I like. You see, Sony has been guilty in the past of way too bloated press events, so long and filled with unnecessary stuff that people can get bored while watching (remember when they talked about the tv series “Power” on stage? No? Good for you!), but they started trimming the fat more and more starting with last year, and this year went even further. Heck, the conference lasted less than the usual 1:30 hours (maybe even less than 1:20 hours), and far less than their older 2-hours older shows. This year, though, they added another layer to the whole packaging, something that made it more classy and more entertaining to watch. The orchestra playing the music for all the trailes, combined with the stage itself, capable of stereoscopic-like effects, made it look more like a true, and interesting, theatrical experience.

I’ve always been a strong sustainer of Nintendo Directs / Digital Events, because they weren’t as bloated as normal conferences, and 2014’s Digital Event showed how the magic of editing and post-production can improve an event aimed at customers: who needs people speaking on stage by using the most blatant “marketing-ism” when we can see Reggie and Iwata punching each other as an introduction to Miis in Smash Bros.? Unfortunately, last year’s DE was bad due to the content and some problems of pacing (i.e. the waaaaaaay too long developer interviews…probably, the way they covered the lack of other material for the streaming), but it was a badly-executed format, not a problem with the format itself. Microsoft recent conferences have tried to have a better pacing, even with announcements / trailers followed directly by other trailers, no stop, and that’s an attempt I appreciate…a pity to see their recent conferences still affected by very down moments, that are not necessary to show on stage (see this year’s Minecraft VR presentation). Sony E3 2016 Conference is a different and warmly accepted take on the classic conference, that makes it more similar to 2014’s Digital Event concept-wise, but with more elegance and less strange / funny / weirdly exciting moments. Which, after all, is not bad, it’s just another, well played take on a similar concept. Also, good to see that kind of stage: it reminded me of how Nintendo used E3 2011 Conference stage to introduce some 3DS games they would’ve talked about a few moments later (an attempt to render the stereoscopical 3D to press events viewers, the effect was neat!).

We Happy Few

While this was announced as a Kickstarter back in 2015, I never payed too much attention to it. But the trailer showed at this year’s Microsoft conference made it look like something that, one day or another, I would like to play. It’s a first person shooter with procedurally-generated scenarios and a concept not seen so often in gaming: you’re someone who slowly acknowledges the world you see is different compared to what it actually is, stops taking the usual doses of medicine (a drug called “Joy”) and starts to understand how the place where the game is placed is governed by one little rule: be happy! You can’t be sad, because the world around you is awesome, so colourful and so kind. Oh, look, people invite you for a pinata game, come on, time to smash it with your bat and-the pinata was actually a rat, you’re surrounded by blood, you refute the pill they offer to you and you get chased for the crime of being a “Downer”. That’s something you surely don’t see usually. I kind of agree with Kinda (ah!) Funny guys as they say it’s similar to Bioshock due to the style and the feeling of a first person game where shooting isn’t the main reason you’re playing… what could be called as an experience (sorry Kyle Bosman, I couldn’t resist myself this time, I had to). I’m happy to say I’m going to follow this game more in the future, even by sheer interest, especially if it can run on my PC (I suppose that Xbox Preview period could be useful on the matter). And, I want to assure you, I didn’t take any pill to be so positive about it, I swear.

Zelda: Breath of Fresh Air

Aaah, my new desktop screensaver.

To be honest, I probably shouldn’t dedicate too much space about it, given how 90%-95% of the things that could’ve been said about it have already been said numerous times: the enchanting, Ghibli-like graphical style (the influence is even clearer when you see the Japanese official logo of the game), the possibilities of interaction with enemies and the environment as a whole, how open it appears to be, the presence of voice acting, the technology theme, Calamity Ganon as a plague-like entity…you heard all of this, already. But I wanted to focus on one specific element surrounding Zelda’s explosive, earth-shattering unveil. It’s from an interview posted on Time website, here

As the first fully open-world Nintendo’s worked on, what’s the hardest thing about designing for an open world?

This is definitely the first time we’ve created a game this large. We didn’t know where to start. So it happened to be there was a team that was working on creating a larger world. And this team was a group of younger developers. So we had our old programmers from the Zelda team take a step aside, so we could introduce this new group of programmers.

But then these new, younger developers had no clue about how past Zeldas had been created. The group of new staff actually would ask us, like ‘Well I know that it’s been done, traditionally, in other Zelda titles, but why does it have to be that way?’ And among those questions there were some I just couldn’t answer, that I didn’t know the answer to myself. That was because I just took those things on as a tradition, and I didn’t really know why the tradition existed.

When you think about it, maybe those things really didn’t need to be there in the modern world, those traditions. So I started destroying these traditions I’d inherited in the series one by one. But it’s a process that takes a lot of time. And because we were destroying everything we’d done in the past, and rebuild new ideas from the ground up, that was the hardest thing, and it’s really taken a long time to create the thing I most wanted to create.

Young developers taking on major Nintendo franchises, questioning why specific elements follow specific guidelines, “why is it needed to be like this?”, so much that Anouma himself decided there wasn’t an important reason behind some conventions…and he decided to break them. The fact Anouma couldn’t realise it by himself is a bit sad and concerning, but I’d dare to say it’s not so uncommon: how many times we have a fixed image of something (a place, an organisation, uses…everything) and we get so used to that image that we never question it or we don’t accept immediately others who question it? When you think about it, it’s not so uncommon…just like it’s not so uncommon to see people questioning even the most unquestionable things, honestly. Seriously, though, it’s good to see Anouma (who, actually, wanted to break the conventions from the start, going by the interview) understood what were the conventions that needed to be broken and, above all, it’s great to see he was helped by younger staff. THIS is something I’d love to see more in Nintendo’s future: young people shining, working on major franchises, both established and new. We all saw Splatoon turning out great (brand new IP involving ideas from younger developers) and part of the Garage initiative (which saw, as a follow-up, the, er, dividing Star Fox Zero + Star Fox Guard combo); now, we see new people taking over a brand as important as Zelda. Also, we hear Miyamoto stating how “a new kind of Mario is coming” and, while Mario has witnessed changes with the past iterations, it’s always fascinating to see major developers shaking up their big franchises or believing more in major new IPs. This renewement possibly happening in Nintendo, I like it. Oh, and speaking of new IPs…

Ever Oasis, another new IP from Nintendo

Nintendo has received plenty of criticism in the past few years because they relied way too much on their already-known properties, without trying to start new franchises, and this is true since…Nintendo has always developed several new IPs per gen. Ah. But most of the criticism is about MAJOR new IPs, and while the Pullblox and BoxBoys are good / great additions, we really needed to see something like Splatoon. And now, a chibi-stylised RPG with Zelda influence for dungeons and combat system and a managerial system, developed by Grezzo, an external team that worked on both Zelda remakes on 3DS, so it’s actually a clever way to “promote” them, since they can use what learned while remaking both Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask. Also, directed by the Mana series creator, Koiuchi Iishi: good pedigree overall for this project. While it’s currently unkwnown how much (and if) Nintendo will promote it in such a way it is indeed the start of a brand new, mid-level Nintendo franchise, it pleases me to see a new attempt in the RPG genre, after the already long-forgotten Codename: S.T.E.A.M., which was announced in a similar way (surprise announcement at E3 for 3DS). Hopefully, Ever Oasis won’t follow S.T.E.A.M.’s steps towards the path of irrelevance. It’s not easy, especially since it’s a 3DS game released in 2017 (and this is when you remember that, by March 2017, the handheld will be six – 6, sei, roku – years old), but there’s promise that I’d be disappointed to see severly underused.

But please, Grezzo, a better IA for CPU party memebers is needed, that boss fight…oh man.

Crash is alive, after all

I want to anticipate that this entry will be on both lists, and I suppose the reason is obvious, but not now. Here, just the good part of Crash announcements at E3…THE ORIGINAL TRILOGY REMASTERED ON PS4! An amazing news, and I’m really excited and curious to see how they will look, while hoping the changes will be as good as possible. Probably I’m a strange man in a world filled with madness, but I think both Crash 2 and Warped still look good, despite their age; probably, a result of the style + the levels structure and how ND knew how to use the hardware they worked on (sounds familiar). Crash 1 is the one which aged the most by far, and I hope Vicarious Visions will tweak it as it deserves (like, I don’t know, checkpoints not as harsh as in the original?).

However, there’s something more behind both Crash Trilogy remaster and Crash in Skylanders: there’s a strong feeling both announcements represent a new push for the old Bandicoot, and a test as well. It’s not crazy to imagine the results of both items can influence the work behind a brand new entry in the Crash series, a new episode bringing back the originals charm and atmoshpere. Something is definitely moving behind the scenes, and as a Crash Bandicoot fan, after years of mediocre / strange games if not deafening silence, this is like a new beginning. We finally meet again, Crash.

Dishonored 2

The first Dishonored is a game that I remember fondly: it was quite an intense experience (sorry, Kyle!), especially considering how I completed it by killing the less amount of people possible, and I love how the game made such approach possible, the atmosphere of Dunwall, how the others’ behaviour changes based on my action; the plot kept me interested from the beginning to the end as well. Yeah, good memories overall. So, of course I was very interested in looking at what its sequel would offer, even if it’ll be a while before I can actually buy it, and Bethesda’s conference showing convinced me that, yes, this is the sequel the first game deserves. Playing as Corvo or Emily? Awesome! Awesome! Brench system for supernatural powers, so they can get both lethal and not-lethal upgrades? Awesome! An item allowing you to shift costantly between different time periods for a specific part of the game? That’s something I’d love to play. This is a game that seems so far to be building on the great basis of the first title, and it’s for the best. Arkane Studios surprised me the first time, and it seems they haven’t lost it so far; the long gameplay segment showed at the conference gave a strong outlook about the qualities of the title. Very, very promising…so far, no rats in sight on the streets of excitement for this game.

And there it is, my personal list of the Best stuff happened at this year’s E3. There were lots of other games or stuff that could’ve been in this list (dat Spiderman trailer), and I want to stress how this isn’t an exhaustive list, far from it.

Of course, the next future will see the conclusion of this feature, the opposite side of the judgement spectrum and…I’d say there’s stuff to talk about there as well.

See you soon, world

P.S. #westandforfemalesingamingindustry

]]>https://theflyingthoughts.com/2016/06/23/e3-2016-ft-the-best-and-the-worst-part-1/feed/1e3-2016mpl90https://theflyingthoughts.com/2016/06/23/e3-2016-ft-the-best-and-the-worst-part-1/New slogan for Nintendo of America?http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/theflyingthoughts/~3/Y9BicyE94Kk/
https://theflyingthoughts.com/2016/05/11/new-slogan-for-nintendo-of-america/#respondWed, 11 May 2016 17:57:05 +0000http://theflyingthoughts.com/?p=1352]]>If you followed social and retail activities from Nintendo of America recently, you have encountered a new colour / image motif from them: instead of the corporate grey logo on white background, white logo on red background. You can see it on every Nintendo Youtube’s video preview, as their new avatar on Twitter (the color scheme is used by Nintendo NY’s Twitter account too). Also, they renewed their retail presence back in the end of last year with the same motif and artworks of several Nintendo characters: two examples on the matter

Also, just see the already well-documented and not-praised-enough logo for MyNintendo, which is actually global compared to all the aforementioned initiatives, NA only for now.

Thanks to the recent 2DS price-cut commercial, it seems there’s a new element of this new advertising policy.

Yes, because Nintendo announced a new MSRP for the 2DS, now at $79.99 (including Mario Kart 7), a price aimed at the younger audience, as highlighted by the contestual announcements of both Style Savvy 3 and Disney Magical World 2’s american release. And there’s a commercial for it, posted only by PerfectlyNintendo’s Youtube account at the time of this post

Yeah, the commercial is pretty standard. Kids playing everywhere with their 2DSes, in parks, cars, and several times both the new price and games at lower prices are showed. Honestly, a bit too on the tame side, since there’s no voiceover, and I’m not such a fan of the pace of the advert. But whatever, this is not what’s important for the context of this post. Both the intro and the outro are…interesting. The outro is, indeed, the white Nintendo logo on a red background. And the iconic coin sound. But the ending is even more interesting, because this is what appears (credits to Eradicate on NeoGAF for making the gif)

A very nice animation with the classic 4-buttons layout, and then the new slogan appears: There’s no Play like it.

Intuitively, this sounds like a word-play, by substituting the word “place” with “play”, as to indicate how “There’s no place like Nintendo” (this slogan must be read as connected to the intro of the commercial), and to highlight the Nintendo games and hardware’s identity (and that’s why the 4-buttons layout is used: that’s the Nintendo setup, different from Microsoft’s and, of course, Sony’s). Also, considering how the intro and outro are strictly connected icon-wise and theme-wise, it’s rather difficult this is just a slogan for the 2DS.

Now, decent questions generated by this new piece of information are: how much is this going to be used in the future? Will Nintendo use this slogan to promote NX as well (maybe alongside NX’s own slogan, if there will be any console-specific slogan)? How will audiences react to this further element of the renewed NoA’s advertising policy? Does the presence of the button layout indicate that NX’s controller will feature physical buttons, after all…or is it a further hint that the free-form screen controller is real, since “There’s no play like it…because you can make it as you want!”? And can this slogan be 3D-printed as well? Are there trees hiding in any part of the animation, unveiling where that was made?

Partial jokes aside, this is another part of a change in look that Nintendo of America started back in September 2015, and certainly it’s going to be interesting to see what else is going to happen and (above all, personally) if the new look will be adopted by European and Japanese branches too, just like happened for MyNintendo.

See you soon, world

P.S. #westandforfemalesingamingindustry

]]>https://theflyingthoughts.com/2016/05/11/new-slogan-for-nintendo-of-america/feed/0885xmpl90https://theflyingthoughts.com/2016/05/11/new-slogan-for-nintendo-of-america/PSX memories ft. Crash 2 & 3. Or vs? Part 1http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/theflyingthoughts/~3/4ivCypAOQuc/
https://theflyingthoughts.com/2016/05/09/psx-memories-ft-crash-2-3-or-vs-part-1/#respondSun, 08 May 2016 22:58:27 +0000http://theflyingthoughts.com/?p=1135]]>Ah, the first PlayStation, a console that I remember quite fondly. I was a child back then, and while I liked videogames, I still have way too many great if not amazing titles from that era I should’ve played (and that I should still play), but I’ve yet to even just try. Anyway, I have a good amount of gaming memories related to that console, like the first game I’ve ever played, Porsche Challenge. I still remember how I tried to steer in the game the first time I played it by actually steering the contoller. Ah, that Wii foreshadowing, if only I knew…

Seriously, though, I played several games on PSX, and, I have to be honest, there’s a series I’ve fell in love with back when it appeared on the first PlayStation, and it’s sad to see it now disappeared from Earth (…even if maybe not for long?!?): Crash Bandicoot “original” series.

MAJOR WARNING: This is a 4,000+ blog post, containing spoilers about both games. In case you haven’t played these games yet, avoid the rest of it. For all the others, see you all after the jump.

And by “original” series, I mean the first titles, the first creations from Naughty Dog that made lots of head turn (and, I’m glad to say, not the last ones) in the gaming industry. One could try to define these games as “2D platformers made in 3D” since you’re set on a single possible path made of holes, enemies, obstacles and loooooots of boxes; alongside detours, secrets and backtracking for some levels. Also, apples. Those juicy apples, basically the Crash Bandicoot’s version of Mario coins. Hey, look, Crash’s attack move is a Tazmania devil-like spin and…no, the apples go away if I start spinning near to them! What? How dare they!

If you’re interested in knowing more about how the character (and the first game) came to be, I can’t recommend you enough the multi-part series “Making Crash Bandicoot” by Andy Gavin, one of the founders of Naughty Dog back in 1986. Lots of great stuff in all the parts, here’s the link to the first episode of the feature: http://all-things-andy-gavin.com/2011/02/02/making-crash-bandicoot-part-1/

Back to the main topic of this post…Among older fans, there’s discussion about which of the two games considered almost universally the best classic (i.e. platform games) titles in the series is actually better: Crash 2 with its tower to climb, polar bears, jet packs and the crystal’s series debut? Or Crash 3, with time travel, jet ski, underwater levels and…airplanes? I used to replay both of them, especially the second game, probably because, as time went by, I started feeling it was a better game than the third; however, for several reasons, I stopped doing so. Now, inspired by other friends of mine who decided to replay them, I took the chance to return in both game’s worlds and…and I thought “This could be an idea for an interesting analysis about specific elements of both games, so I can see which one is better overall, with a renewed experience, several years and tons of games after the last time”. And this is why I decided to create this series of posts, each dedicated to single parts of the games, the ones I consider the most important to judge them. Warning: subsequent parts of this series won’t necessairly come one after the other, and there isn’t a fixed schedule; they’ll come when I feel it’s right, basically. Premise’s done, so…time to start, don’t you think?

Part 1: The Bosses

The first element I want to compare between both games are the bosses, what you’re destinted to once you collect all the five crystals in each room, wheter it’s Crash 2 or 3.

One thing that can definitely be said about Crash Bandicoot’s boss characters is that they all look quite different, aesthetics-wise: we have mad scientists, time old travelers with slight Asian facial traits, humanised beasts, doctors using mechas and throwing at you all the missiles they got…a cartoonish hell. But what’s even more important, in a game, is how the play: who cares if they look crazy enough when their patterns or scenario are less exciting than way too many ideas coming from Konami (unless you really love pachinkos! In that case, the lever is there and I won’t stop you from pulling it).

Playing them again has been refreshing, I have to admit: I noticed some things I never thought about back then. Both good and bad. Let’s start by talking about Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back.

The Bosses in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back

Ripper Roo

The first boss fight of the second game, and it’s decent-ish as a first battle. The set in which is placed looks cool: a sophisticated office with books, ladders, a comfortable chair, a wooden table and…water: a waterfall and a platform where the boss battle happens, decorated with Ripper’s face and math equations, on a river. You can’t deny it looks nice. Ripper attacks twice for each turn: first, he makes appear TNTs on the floor, and you have to avoid them by seeing where Ripper jumps; each square “TNT-ed” has a 6 seconds timer (longer than the usual 3-seconds one) and then they explode. This makes the professor go crazy and shatters its initial sophisticated look. And this is when the second part of each turn starts, since now Nitro squares appear. No timers, just suffering if you happen to go there. Then, Nitros explode, and the mad professor’s defenceless. This is the time you must hit him. So, apparently, it’s a good concept but, to be honest, it’s not that difficult, it’s quite easy. I’d dare to say maybe…too easy? What I mean is that, once you get the patterns, it becomes rather easy to avoid both TNTs and Nitros, but not in such a way that you still feel engaged or challenged enough by it. Even if it’s the first time you encounter a boss in the game, the fight should still make you feel excited for it, and this one doesn’t do that enough. Not that it’s completely devoid of challenge, you have to figure out the patterns at first and they change each turn, even if slightly. It’s far from a though battle, and it’s not that interesting, but I still say that, for a first battle, it’s around decency: nice set, funny boss (seeing Ripper Roo going literally from Dr. Jeckill to Mr. Hyde makes you laugh), decent concept…but an execution falling on the shallow side a bit. Still, not an outright bad boss fight.

Komodo Bros.

While Ripper Roo’s fight was in a rectangular-shaped field, this one is in a circular-shaped field field. In this case, the way to defeat them is to wait for the taller one to end its spinning attack, then just attack him with your own spin move…no need to aim: wherever you send it, it will hit the other anyway. The second and the third hit requires you to avoid the swords thrown by the brother at the center of the stage before getting to the spin attack; and when the other spins around for the third time, there are other swords coming from the center. Unfortunately, this boss fight is not even decent-ish as the other: easier than Ripper Roo’s one and just executed badly. One could argue that the Komodo Bro’s spin attack is too slow, and it could be a bit faster, but it’s a minor concern honestly: while it shouldn’t be as pathetically easy and boring as it is, it’s still a second boss battle, so it can’t be excessively difficult. But there are far worse deficiencies here, all of them severly impacting negatively how interesting this battle is. Surely the fact that you don’t need to aim at all when you attack the defenceless brother after his spin attack ends lowers the difficulty already, but there’s something even worse. You see, it happens several times that, when the Komodo Bro at the center starts his own swords attack, the point where he starts is far from where you are, and it takes even 10 seconds for him to reach you…unless you move, obviously. His attack doesn’t change direction, not even once; there is no sense of threat at all. And, again, it’s sloooooow, so much that it becomes an annoyance. His pattern variety is almost non existent, except for when he throws swords directly at you (thank God) when the other is in his third spin attack: this is when the the fight gets slightly (sliiiiiiiiiightly) more intense. But it’s not nearly enough, sadly. Ripper Roo’s fight had something that could make you feel a bit challenged, and it wasn’t a pity to be on the easy side, even if too much, but you expect something more interesting, more challenging, more engaging as the game progresses: bigger obstacles, bigger satisfaction for overcoming them. The Komodo Bros.? Very shallow, slow elements, too predictable, uninteresting patterns. Not a good boss fight, unfortunately. Probably the best element is the set in which this fight takes place: it doesn’t look bad. Still, not as good as Ripper Roo’s charming “natural office”. But the fight is meh.

Tiny Tiger

Tiny offers a dynamic fight, involving unstable platforms in a futuristic-like setting: it’s probably in a spaceship, with droids traveling across pipes, and Tiny comes from his room by literally tearing off a metal door. He’s strong for sure, but his battle is about jumping. There are nine small platforms and, after a few seconds, some will turn red, as a warning that they’re going to fall. You jump between platforms, and Tiny does the same. What you need to do is to use Tiny’s jumping at your own advantage: simply, make it so he jumps in a spot where one of the platforms has fallen. In the end, it’s not so hard, but it presents challenge, since it’s not that easy to bring Tiny where we want the first times, especially the second and the third time. In fact, the amount and the placements of platforms turning into red changes each time: three (an L), then two, then just one. This doesn’t seem an important change at first, but the pattern variety influences how you need to approach the fight and how to use Tiny’s jumping pattern (which is based on your own path). Both skills and a bit of strategic thinking are needed in order to beat this muscular (even if just for arms, chest and abdomen…just look at those legs! How can they even sustain the rest, it’s illogical!) antropomorphic feline. This battle also requires you to stay careful, since lots of platforms turn red and, then, fall, just when Tiny starts his fall. So, no time to appreciate his funny attempts to fight gravity, watch out for safe platforms. After all, this is a nice boss fight that, while not extremely difficult, it makes you feel engaged and rethink how to execute your strategy due to the pattern’s changes. So much better than the Komodo Bros.

N. Gin

This is a different boss fight compared to the others, since the field in which you move is two-dimensional, not a rectangular / circular-shaped field. But N.Gin is in a robot, distant from where you are, how the hell can you attac-wait, now you can shoot wumpas? Why? But who cares, this fight is good! I remember that I appreciated it already back when I was younger, and replaying it confirmed my feelings on it. First of all, it breaks from the convention of three-parts life bar, since it requires five hits to bring it down. Also, there’s a big variety in patterns, points to hit, what to do, as more parts of the robot are destroyed. Yes, what you need to do here is destroying the five parts on the robot’s body. First the mechanical claws, then the missiles compartment and, at the end, the final death ray. The spots aren’t always hittable, just when they “open” and you see them glowing. As you can see, this battle requires timing to hit the spots in the right moment. Also, the patterns. When the robot is full, the first pattern is a ray coming from one of the claws, with a wave-like trajectory. Once the two claws are destroyed, the new pattern involves the missiles on its shoulders, which are launched from the top of the screen, right on your platform: here, looking at the shadow is essential to reach the part of the platform still safe. When one of the shoulders is destroyed, there’s a new pattern, with just one missile launched every time, but coming from the side. Finally, the central death ray. In this case, you need to use the small moments when N Gin is loading the ray to attack it, then stay safe on the other parts of the platform. Actually, it’s three small platforms attached together, and this is clear in the final act of the boss fight, since the death ray destroys each part, and it won’t come back up if not several seconds later, not after N. Gin attacks you again with the death ray. Once you defeat him, a glorious explosion. I suppose this description caputres well enough why I really like this fight. As already said, it breaks several conventions from the others, and not just for the life bar. In fact, since you need to hit the different points, if you’re good enough, you can make him lose two parts of his life a few seconds between each other. Moreover, it’s challenging, since it requires you to time your shooting at the right time and place (the spots aren’t always available for hits, as said earlier); it’s a bit on the hard side, but it’s the fourth boss fight out of 5 totals, so it’s fitting. Finally, the patterns are great and the variety is pretty interesting. Very cool boss fight, maybe I appreciate it even more now, after so many years. It’s so cool that makes me excited for the final encounter. Come on Cortex, show me your moves! Do your best! I’m ready! I’M READY!

Dr. Neo Cortex

…ready to be extremely disappointed. It suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks. It’s bad on its own, and an extreme disappointment as a final boss battle. The description? Just hit him three times approaching him with your jet pack. Just follow him, avoid bombs and asteroids, and you’re done. The environmental obstacles aren’t enough to give the sense of challenge, and it’s a pity to see such a cool-looking set wasted on this…thing. It’s even worse than I remembered now, unfortunately. The patterns are non exsistent, and, when you’re hit, he stops too. Not that distant from where you are either. The only “challenge” here is to stop Cortex before he reaches the last ring, the one with the inside glowing, but the path is quite long, you’ll have enough chances to kill him well before the end. It doesn’t feel like the final battle of a long journey, more like a side detour that maybe, just maybe, would be better as one of the first boss fights, concept-wise. But the execution here is bad, between lack of excitement, Cortex still too near you whenever you stop. And this should be the final fight. It’s unfortunate, N.Gin feels much more like the final battle you deserve for playing / completing so many levels.

And now, time to talk about the boss fights from the third game

The Bosses in Crash Bandicoot3: Warped

Tiny Tiger

Tiny is the first boss in Crash 3, and he jumps around again. This time, though, there aren’t falling platforms, the battle is in a roman coliseum, with Cortex watching and so many people cheering for Tiny (so many Cortex’s droids, actually). The atmosphere is nice, but the fight is dull. It consists of avoiding Tiny Tiger’s jumping attack, then attacking him when he’s tired and, then, avoiding all the lions that are unleashed shortly after (twice). Unfortunately, the pattern’s variety is minor, which is always something I don’t look at positively for boss fights; also, the challenge is very low, even for a first boss fight. There’s lot of space on the field to avoid Tiny Tiger’s attacks, and while the lions’ can look scary at first, just spinning and jumping around should do the trick. It’s not interesting enough to engage the player, despite the set where it’s placed, and it’s very low difficulty makes it even more difficult to make the player feel at least excited to play it. As stated earlier, the first boss can’t surely be that harsh, but it should present elements of interest (Ripper Roo’s fight had some interesting elements, on the contrary), and this one doesn’t do that nearly enough. Not good.

Dingodile

Do you remember the Komodo Bros. fight? Imagine if the circular-shaped-field fight were well executed and made it a worthy fight…this is Dingodile’s boss battle. Before even starting, he surrounds himself with crystals acting as rotating barriers, then he starts with his first kind of attack. The concept is similar to the swords from the Komodo Brother at the center, but this time it’s made by projectiles coming from the top of the screen (watch out for the shadows) and, above all, he rotates fast. Yes. And he starts near enough from where you are that the sense of danger is well present. Yes! It’s so fast that a good strategy can be inverting your direction at one point, because he’s going to be faster than you (unless you’re facing him with the Super Speed powerup unlocked, but it’s another story). This attack changes enough, since it’s longer the second time and, the third time, there are two plasma’s projectiles he shoots at once. Good variety. Every time you obtain to overcome this attack, the second part of his whole attack pattern is a shot aimed directly at you. He will change his direction according to where you are, you must act quickly in order to avoid it. This breaks parts of the crystal barriers, which is great since that’s how you can reach him for the hit, but they rotate, so you’ll need to time and place his attacks in order to break enough of all the barriers to reach him. It’s crystal clear why it’s so much better than it’s “predecessor”, between the good difficulty and the challenge it features. The patterns’ variety helps a lot, and all the different elements (crystal barriers, different plasmas projectiles, plasma ray) adds up in terms of how exciting it doesn’t just look, but feels to play as well. You feel challenged, maybe it could be questioned if it’s a tad too difficult considering it’s the second boss fight of the game, but I feel it’s fine as it is. Even if it’s granted you’ll die sometimes because you’re not fast enough. I appreciate to see this concept, which was interesting but botched in Cortex Strikes Back, be back and now executed well. Good job. Also, the penguin who appears is cute and it reminds me so much of Crash 2.

N. Trophy

N. Trophy, the time traveler with his tuning fork. This is one boss fight where the field changes each time he’s hit; we literally travel through space and time in this battle. It’s a nice choice, it makes the battle more dynamic; not that it isn’t on its own. There are several elements that change between turns, and it feels like a good challenge. First of all, at the start of each turn, N. Trophy creates some platforms outside your default one: the width and amount of smaller platforms stacked between each other decreases in each turn, so the difficulty level increases just from the field conformation’s changes, since different space to move = different way to avoid N. Trophy’s attacks. But the attacks are different each turn as well: different shooting tempo, different sequences and directions of lasers coming from his tuning fork (alongside that sound each time a new laser attack started). In the end, N.Trophy for…whatever reason, while resting for the effort, decides to create new platforms, as a way to reach him. Of course, the placement and the form of these agglomerated platforms change every time, increasing the effort needed to reach them (remember that this battle unlocks the Death Tornado Spin, so it doesn’t help the first time you face him. Between the changing environment and, above all, the differencies between each turn, this turns out to be a pretty good and engaging fight; especially considering how it involves actual platforming (the final part of each turn) and how it makes you rethink your strategy by altering the field you play on. Good job, N.Trophy. I almost feel sorry to destory you. …Naaaaah.

N. Gin

Do you remember N.Gin fight back from Crash 2? In this case, the programmers probably thought “How could we make it even better?”. But of course! Now complete the mech from the first game, give to the player the control of an actual spaceship (and this is the only boss battle where Coco comes in in Crash’s place)so he/she can move much more (also, shooting now makes sense, instead of the sudden-an-never-used-again-but-still-funny Wumpa shooting ability out of nowhere), and give to the battle even more dynamicity, with missiles coming at you with a much bigger frequency. And keep the 5-parts life bar, each part represented by a part of the mech’s body. Also, now his arms have laser gatlings mitras. And you’re on the moon. Moreover, this time you have a lifebar as well (taken straight from the plane levels, obviously), which actually allows for the battle to be more difficult, a bigger challenge: now that it doesn’t just take one hit for you to die, there’s more that can be done. What else could be done for a fight like this? …A twist, of course! This is also the only fight featuring such a mechanic, since the defeated space mech enters in a bigger shell, and now the battle renewes (so much your battleship gets a small transformation since now Tiger joins the battle. Wait, Tiger can drive battleships, what). An even bigger lifebar for N.Gin, four missiles allotments, two arms with a different kind of projectiles and, from the bottom, N.Gin shoots what’s probably the most insedious danger: a lingot-like shaped projectile that takes lots of hits to be destroyed. And there are still missiles and projectiles to destroy / avoid while trying to destroy the big mech’s parts. This fight is very hectic, but the major criticism that could be sustained is that it doesn’t stop you from spamming your own projectiles, since you shoot them at a much faster rate than the Wumpas from Crash 2. Now, again, this fight is so tense and faster than the precedent game that, if you could shoot at the same rate as Crash back then, it would be impossible…but, at the same time, I can see where this comes from: just keeping your finger on the button to shoot, you can justN.Gin’s mech while moving furiously from one side to another of the screen. Maybe, a small colldown time (2-3 seconds) after a specific amount of projectiles shoot / time period spent shooting continously could have led another layer for the battle, i.e. how to manage your weapons: shooting always and then wait for them to be loaded again or shooting with smaller pauses that make them “cooler” without resorting to the cool down? Even by taking into consideration this factor, this is an evolution of Crash 2’s battle. And it’s very good.

Dr. Neo Cortex

Third time I uses this kind of question, but who cares: do you remember Neo Cortex’s fight back in Crash 2, right? That dull, unepic, bothced “fight”? Well…here they changed it completely, and for the better. This time, it’s more traditional: Cortex shoots at you a few times, while surrounded by a shield, then he throws mines on the ground, and that’s the exact time the shield disappears. Once you attack him, you need to throw him in the central pit, despite all the mines possibly helping or obstacolating you by sending Cortex’s body here and there. And Cortex’s attacks change a bit between each turn. Not extremely so. But Aku Aku and Uka Uka’s fight is different each time. Yes, the ultimate fight between good and evil between the two masks happens while you’re fighting Cortex. And the dynamics change a lot each turn. At first, it’s just them looking each other in their eyes, shooting lasers, with the distance between them changing costantly. Then, a supernatural vortex that travels on the field. Finally, a fight so intense that, after a few seconds, a big explosion is produced. When you mix the two dimensions of this fight (defend from Cortex’s attacks and attack him + avoid at all costs what the two masks are doing), you get a cocktail that tastes good, difficult and, above all, it has the good old taste of a final battle. Exactly what the second game lacked completely.

So, there we have it, a list of descriptions / analysis of all the boss fights from the two games and…I must admit, I never thought it would’ve been so one-sided. I didn’t ever put so much into looking at each boss’s element and it surprised me to see that one of the game features a bigger amount of good / great boss fights with just one stinker, while the other has one decentish fight, two good ones (N.Gin is very good here as well), and two that are bad, with one being the final boss fight. Thus, in terms of boss fight, I have to say that Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped is the better game, and it isn’t as a close fight as I thought years ago.

Eh, I wonder how this will go with the next parts of this feature. And who knows when they will come up.

See you soon, world

P.S. #westandforfemalesingamingindustry

]]>https://theflyingthoughts.com/2016/05/09/psx-memories-ft-crash-2-3-or-vs-part-1/feed/0images-1-5mpl90https://theflyingthoughts.com/2016/05/09/psx-memories-ft-crash-2-3-or-vs-part-1/Culdecpt Revolt dedicated Direct announcedhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/theflyingthoughts/~3/Fn-joAO4gyE/
https://theflyingthoughts.com/2016/05/06/culdecpt-revolt-dedicated-direct-announced/#respondFri, 06 May 2016 09:20:24 +0000http://theflyingthoughts.com/?p=1301]]>Nintendo and Omiya Soft have been developing the next installment in the Culdcept series, Culdcept Revolt, for quite some time. This represents the first actual brand new episode in 12 years. A few months ago, Nintendo announced it would have been released in July in Japan (no, don’t even ask for the West, that way you won’t be disappointed when it’s not announced for its release here), and it seems time for more infos on the game is coming soon

Both Nintendo Japan and Dengeki Nintendo Twitter accounts have just retweeted about the next Japan-only Nintendo Direct presentation, and it’s going to be, indeed, about Culdcept Revolt. Small curiosity: this is the first time Dengeki Nintendo tweets about a Direct a few minutes before Nintendo themselves.

It’s happening on May 11th, 2016, starting at 20:30 JPT, which translates into

12:30 BST
11:30 UTC
07:30 EDT
04:30 PDT

(credits to GAF user JoeM86 for the thread and the different time zones – http://neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1215425 )

We’ll get more information about the lenght of the presentation around 30 minutes before it starts, as always.

The Culdcept series of turn-based strategy games based on cards is extremely niche here in the West, which comes as no surprise given the extremely small amount of titles released here (the last one being Culdcept Saga back in 2008 in NA), but there are fans, so this upcoming Direct is a good chance to get more infos about it. It’s also a Direct, so more than what Nintendo is doing at E3 this year! *extreme suffering inside, goes back in a corner and waits for NX-event…while being excited as fuck for Zelda’s Treehouse Live*

See you soon, world

P.S. #westandforfemalesingamingindustry

]]>https://theflyingthoughts.com/2016/05/06/culdecpt-revolt-dedicated-direct-announced/feed/0culdcept-revolt-ann-3dsmpl90https://theflyingthoughts.com/2016/05/06/culdecpt-revolt-dedicated-direct-announced/Humble Friends of Nintendo: the new titleshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/theflyingthoughts/~3/dYQFl89bEVc/
https://theflyingthoughts.com/2016/05/03/humble-friends-of-nintendo-the-new-titles/#respondTue, 03 May 2016 18:06:03 +0000http://theflyingthoughts.com/?p=1117]]>The most recent Nintendo-themed Humble Bundle, called Humble Friends of Nintendo Bundle has been a good performer so far: in just a week, it accumulated well over 100,000 bundles sold and over $1,000,000 of payments, with a very high average, over $9.70. The result has been surely helped by the good and great titles featured so far, like Affordable Space Adventure and Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse (and these are the ones available just by donating one single dollar. An insanely sick deal, honestly), or Darksiders II and Freedom Planet. But it’s now time to discover what’s getting added for all the people who pledged better than the average

So, yes: Swords & Soldiers II (Wii U), Nano Assault EX (3DS) and Runbow (Wii U) are the new items that everyone who pay more than the average will get codes for.

Titles like Swords & Soldiers II and Runbow still feature prices well over $10 (the former is still priced $19.99), so they could be considered a pretty good deal to get alongside all the other games (and the Retro City Rampage DX Theme for the 3DS Home menu).

Since the Humble Bundle has entered it’s final week, both NA and Eu users will have time up to May 10th, 2016, 19:00 BST. In case you find anything attractive…you know what to do. It’s for a good cause after all!

See you soon, world

P.S. #westandforfemalesingamingindustry

]]>https://theflyingthoughts.com/2016/05/03/humble-friends-of-nintendo-the-new-titles/feed/0largempl90https://theflyingthoughts.com/2016/05/03/humble-friends-of-nintendo-the-new-titles/New rewards for MyNintendo in NA and EUhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/theflyingthoughts/~3/Pp22Nn5DVZg/
https://theflyingthoughts.com/2016/05/01/new-rewards-for-mynintendo-in-na-and-eu/#respondSun, 01 May 2016 09:18:27 +0000http://theflyingthoughts.com/?p=1000]]>Today is May 1st, which means that there are some new deals now available for all the people who created a Nintendo account and connected it to MyNintendo. At the time I’m writing this article, the new rewards are available only in North America and Europe, this article will get updated once rewards appear in Japan as well. Are you ready to see the new possibilities to spend some Platinum / Gold coins…or to not spend them if you’re not interested in the new proposals?

First of all, a small reminder of what game deals ended a few hours ago, courtesy of Nintendo Life

The European list is quite shorter, but it features the first example of a digital discount offered on a yet-to-be released game. And double Captain Toad. Because we all need more EL CAPITAN TODD in our lives.

20% off Animal Crossing: New Leaf – 600 Platinum Points

20% off Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker – 600 Platinum Points

40% off Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker – 100 Gold Points

10% Fire Emblem Fates – 20 Gold Points

It’s important to notice how the Fire Emblem deal ends, of course, the morning the day the game releases.

As you may remember from my analysis of MyNintendo a few weeks ago ( you can find it here, by the way https://theflyingthoughts.com/2016/04/11/first-analysis-of-a-new-membership-system/ ), I talked about the economy behind the system thanks to maxcriden’s contributions, strictly for US though. Since we have new rewards in the mix, I’d say it’s time to see again the value behind each deal, now for EU too. This time, I’m going to use the scheme created by another GAFfer, Griss, around one month ago, when the first rewards appeared

Since there wasn’t such a detailed economics analysis back then for EU, I can’t exactly make comparisons as of now between the older rewards and the new rewards, but, if North America is the case, the ratios probably didn’t change that much, if not at all. Still, going by first impressions, Fire Emblem: Fates’s discount seems to be the reward for which the smallest amount of Gold points is needed so far.

So, there you have it. Hopefully, this will guide your purchase well enough. Or it will guide you to no purchase at all, while waiting for new deals to come again. It’s not like Nintendo fans like me aren’t used at all to wait for, random example, the first details on the upcoming new console, ahah. *extreme suffering inside*

See you soon, world

P.S. #westandforfemalesingamingindustry

]]>https://theflyingthoughts.com/2016/05/01/new-rewards-for-mynintendo-in-na-and-eu/feed/0my-nintendo-logompl90https://theflyingthoughts.com/2016/05/01/new-rewards-for-mynintendo-in-na-and-eu/Nintendo FY2016 Earnings Results: the madnesshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/theflyingthoughts/~3/W2tR5fljLKE/
https://theflyingthoughts.com/2016/04/27/nintendo-fy2016-earnings-results-the-madness/#respondWed, 27 Apr 2016 20:20:32 +0000http://theflyingthoughts.com/?p=925]]>A few hours ago, Nintendo announced their results for the just-ended FY 2016 (from April 1st, 2015 to March 31st, 2016), and outlined some of their plans for the upcoming Fiscal Year and OH GOD WHAT HAPPENED. Yeah, I’ll have to admit, most of the news I’ve read left me surprised, a bit baffled, and shocked. Now that a few hours have passed, and reactionary feelings have cooled off a bit, here’s my take on what has been already stated, before tomorrow’s Investor Meeting. A long introduction is not necessary this time, so I’d say to get right into the

No, not that. Already enough on the web today, seriously.

NX has a release date!

…and it’s March 2017

Good old IGN guys, they always get me.

March 2017, i.e. Q1 2017, was…unexpected. Nintendo never (and I want to stress it, never) confirmed the console would’ve been released, it’s true, but there were several signs (or just assumptions) pointing to a late 2016’s release: Nikkei’s report about Wii U’s production end, both Wii U and 3DS’s internal titles release schedule, several rumours and that leak from the NeoGAF user Trevelyan99 a few months back, complete with marketing budgets. It’s fair to assume something happened and that there were, indeed, intentions for a late 2016 release that were abandoned for March 2017. This kind of delay is not that much, if you look at the mere months, but it’s highly relevant when you see that the release period is shifted from Christmas and end-year Holidays to a less eventful month like March. This is a major change. Now, does this mean NX is, with no doubts, destined to have a bad launch because it launches outside of the Holidays? …No, in my opinion. The period surely helps, but March is still a good month sales-wise (so many titles getting releases right before the end of the Fiscal Year), both software and hardware wise, especially compared to the period between April and September. Also, it won’t be the release period to make it or break it for NX, it’ll be the NX itself. Think about PS2’s great launch numbers in Japan (around 1 million in two weeks), or 3DS’s first week (despite the awful price and launch lineup), or PS3’s sales in Europe (despite the insane price). Heck, think about the New 3DS in the West back in February: thanks to Majora’s Mask 3D and Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, it sold great in both February and March. Now, 3DS, PS3 and New 3DS aren’t completely great examples, because their sales decreased quickly / very quickly shortly after the launch, but it wasn’t due to the launch period, but for all the already-mentioned “despites” showing themselves in their true form once the launch excitement wears off. So, it makes sense to hear this coming right from Kimishima-san’s mouth

When asked why Nintendo wasn’t launching the NX in time for this year’s big holiday season, Kimishima explained that Nintendo wanted to make sure there were games to go along with the NX.

So, they want things to go as smoothly as possible. And Emily Rogers rumours about the potential astounding amount of Nintendo support for the platform is not scratched by the (supposed) delay of NX’s launch. It just means (hopefully, for the love of God!) that droughts will be even less of a problem with a later launch and a tighter first party lineup. I believe the launch games were getting ready for an Holiday release (except for Splatoon, maybe?), but others were not as much, thus Kimishima thought it would have been better to cut the droughts as much as they could. However, I suppose there were other reasons for the delay, like possible problems with the hardware / SDK that need a little more ironing out, or a further brainstorming between executives in trying to find the best release period, etc.

Also, Q1 2017 was the latest I was expecting NX to release anyway, due to the relevance of the platform for the FY. But no 2016 sucks.

Zelda Wii U is also coming to NX

…and it’s delayed to 2017 for a simultaneous Wii U / NX release

Such a trend I see. The official statement about it is “quality reasons” and…now, I’m sure a few more months can help to refine even more what has to be a shocking (positively) game, but if you think this is the real reason the delay happened (or better, the major one), you’d not see the whole picture. It’s so obvious that, with NX slated for March, Nintendo wants one of the major launch titles for the new platform to not be released a few months after the Wii U version. It’s literally the Twilight Princess situation all over again: the game announced back in 2004, at E3 (epic moment), then delayed, then confirmed for Wii alongside Gamecube. And it becomes a Wii launch game, with the Gamecube SKU releasing slightly later. In Japan, the GC version wasn’t even available at retail, just on Nintendo Online store. It makes sense: an unfortunate piss to loyal Wii U customers, but it makes sense.

New mobile games announced, ft. Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem

This is a smart move. After Miitomo, Nintendo said that the next apps would have been more “games” and more related with their IPs. Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing both satisfy these conditions. Now, before anyone starts saying that there won’t be no FE/AC game for dedicated hardware anymore…ah! You should know by now that Nintendo’s intent with mobile is to create something specific for the platform, that can both attract mobile users to the “premium” experiences on their consoles and become a good gain source, eventually (even if I don’t think Miitomo had that as its main purpose, rather expanding the reach of Nintendo Account / getting people into MyNintendo). They are great fits: Animal Crossing because it’s a franchise that plays well for the mobile audience, and Fire Emblem due to its current recognition…Fates has already surpassed the total shipment for Awakening, and the game has yet to be released in Europe. It’s a major Nintendo IP, now, after risking to be shelved in case Fire Emblem Awakening didn’t sell as much as hoped. What a turnaround. Both apps will be launched in the Fall, so this should line up well enough with Nintendo’s plan to release five apps till March 2017. This all makes sense, like how it’s mentioned that the Animal Crossing app is strictly connected to “the world of Animal Crossing on consoles” (hello, companion app). So far, despite the disappointment (now softened by the cooldown), I’ve yet to see something that makes completely no sense, absolutely, batshit insane and

No NX at E3, focus on Zelda, the ONLY playable title at the event

Sorry if I had to summon you, Doug, but insane situations require insane summons. WHAT.

THIS is my biggest disappointment with today’s event, in the end. I was waiting for this E3 to see Nintendo finally unleashing details on the platform, but…no. It won’t happen. The delusion is high. But, despite what most people will say…this is not a sign of Nintendo losing the battle before even fighting, or something like that. Yes, E3 is important, not showing your upcoming platform at the event is a strange move, but it’s not as important as it was before. We’ve been hearing this story for a while, especially after Nintendo started ditching Live Press Conferences for Nintendo Directs first, Digital Events later. This year, software houses like Activision, EA, Disney and Warhammer have already announced they won’t join E3 this year (even if EA has a concurrent event at Los Angeles). Major publishers saying “No” to showing their own upcoming big titles at a major event like E3 is interesting. Also, the hype game’s been changing for a while: social networks, better distribution of web connections…you don’t need a big event to let people know about something, it’s not SO necessary. If there’s an event, even if outside major physical events, people will report that it’s happening, media will post the news about it. Apple has been using separate venues for their own announcements, complete with live streaming, and I don’t think they’re doing badly due to this. The Nintendo Direct themselves have shown an insane growth of viewership (as production values went higher) in the past years, both concurrent and total: E3 2014 was actually “dominated” by Nintendo, between the Digital Event and the Treehouse Live, with a great amount of concurrent viewers. Even regular Directs can get 200,000+ concurrent viewers between YouTube and Twitch alone. Those are pretty good numbers, especially for regular, non bombastic Directs. …And, yet, this didn’t translate in such a surge for Wii U sales back in 2014, or in a major boost for 3DS either. Or, just think back at how 3DS dominated E3 2010, and then the launch problems. Or how Titanfall was pumped up to be the next big thing of all time and, while it surely did very well, it didn’t help Xbox One sales as both MS and EA hoped (far from it), it started going on sales soon enough and the engaement rates went down quickly. Yeah, what I want to say, after all, is that E3 / Conferences are just a part of the whole hyping machine, and the current possibilities give different opportunities for events to happen and to be considered. Heck, today news was published on CNN website, despite not being at E3

You have to nail that part for sure (and you can do it even outside of E3, IMHO), but, again, it’s just a part: if the months after the reveal are filled with disappointing details, games’ delays, games’ cancellations (it’s a pre-release period, it can happen), footage not looking hot, etc. the anticipation goes down rather quickly. Again: news now can spread very quickly, both positively and negatively. That’s how Microsoft lost the mindshare back in 2013, and that happened for news and events before E3 (the whole TVTVTVTVTV debacle and the DRM / online debacle), and how Sony went in at E3 2013. That’s how 3DS lost anticipation going from the reveal to the launch. And let’s not even talk about the long-ass wait for Wii U.

Also, a separate event can be a good way to get the spotlight all alone, without competition of any kind. And I don’t think they’re not bringing NX games and console at E3 due to immense problems with the hardware and software. Wii U itself had some tech demos back in 2011, in its first E3 (…it’s so crazy to think Wii U had two E3s before launch, while NX zero. Zero. 0. Nada). It’s probably because they want to have the best impact possible with their NX messaging: as clear as possible, as focused as possible, with one sort-of-exception in Zelda, since the Wii U version will be shown at E3.

Now, while I said I’m not contrary to the idea of the NX announcement outside E3, their actual E3 management…it’s a freaking nightmare.

How in the hell is even possible to think that having just Zelda Wii U as a playable demo on the floor is a reasonable idea? Where’s all the 3DS content coming in 2016 (yep, 3DS has a good flow of content, after all, between first party games, localisations and other things)? Why is there no plan for Pokémon Sun and Moon? Why no Paper Mario: Color Splash, a title that supposedly comes out, well, BEFORE Zelda (Summer 2016 v.s. 2017…but we all know it’s getting delayed now to “spread” the lineup a bit more. “Lineup” being an interesting use of the word too). And yes, I’m perfectly aware that Zelda as the only playable game in the booth doesn’t mean it will be the only game Nintendo will talk about at E3. The games I’ve already mentioned will be mentioned for sure, alongside one-two further announcements (for 3DS + Mother 3 for Wii U VC for sure), but this reduction to just one game (even if it’s Zelda) available to the press to play is just absurd. The justification?

E3: Nintendo changes its approach to the show every year. This June, Nintendo will focus its attentions on the upcoming game in The Legend of Zelda series. The Wii U version of the game will be playable for the first time on the E3 show floor, and it will be the only playable game Nintendo presents at the show, in order to provide attendees a complete immersion. Additional information about Nintendo’s E3 plans will be announced in the future.

“in order to provide attendees a complete immersion”

“provide a complete immersion”

“complete immersion”

“COMPLETE IMMERSION”

HOLY SHIT THIS SPIN IS AMAZING. We’re Microsoft levels of spinning here. The only thing I can do here is laugh hard, and hard and hard.

…Imagining all their booths as a reproduction of a Zelda village to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the franchise is kind of cool, I’ll admit it, but this is just baffling.

So, yeah, disappointed but still not worried for most of the details, but this E3 will be awful, even if Zelda could be great (and someone could even say that Zelda alone is better than Amiibo Festival, Federation Forces, etc.etc.). I’m honestly intrigued to see if and what the upcoming Investor Briefing will add to what we already know. And the Q&A segment could be epic, if the right people ask the right questions. No, not “I’m better than you. And you! And you! And I want to show you I can manage Nintendo 10 times better!!!”. But questions about their E3, for example. Especially the paragraph about the complete immersion. God, I’m so going to use that expression as a joke in the future.